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Wilson College President Lorna D. Edmundson Featured in Book on 'Women at the Top'

Posted: November 4, 2010

11/4/2010 Wilson College President Lorna Duphiney Edmundson was selected to be one of a group of women leaders featured in the book, Women at the Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How to Combine Work and Family.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. – Wilson College President Lorna Duphiney Edmundson was selected to be one of a group of women leaders featured in the book, Women at the Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How to Combine Work and Family.

The book, which was published by Wiley-Blackwell Press in the United Kingdom and written by Diane F. Halpern and Fanny M. Cheung, is based on extensive research.

Dr. Edmundson was chosen to be among the women featured because of her leadership roles in six colleges and universities in the United States and France, as well as for her work as a J. William Fulbright Research Scholar in Japan in 1993-94.

Edmundson is quoted several times throughout the book, discussing the challenges and rewards of managing a demanding career in higher education while raising a family and caring for elderly relatives. Edmundson and her husband, Daniel, have two daughters, Laurel and Katherine, and two grandchildren, Kieran and Sabina.

According to the book jacket, the authors used “the best psychological research and personal interviews with 62 women with families and prominent leadership positions in the U.S., China and Hong Kong” to examine the question, “Can women have it all?”

One reviewer, Alice Eagly of Northwestern University, says the book offers “remarkable insights into how women with family responsibilities have attained top positions.” Further, Eagly says the women profiled in the book have succeeded despite encountering challenges. “Their routes … were shaped by differing cultural constraints.” She goes on to describe how creative and thoughtful problem-solving helped all of the women in the study, no matter what their cultural backgrounds were.

“When Dr. Cheung invited me to participate in the study, I was happy to participate, hoping that my experiences might be helpful to a younger professional,” Edmundson said. “I recall how inspiring it was for me to meet and interview some 60 articulate and influential U.S. and Japanese women leaders while conducting my Fulbright research project on visionary women leaders in both countries. Those conversations helped to encourage me in my work and informed my thinking about the conditions that encourage and sustain girls and women in assuming leadership worldwide.”

Under Edmundson’s leadership, Wilson College has raised more than $44 million so far for its Leading with Confidence campaign for a variety of projects including the Brooks Complex for Science, Mathematics and Technology; faculty, staff and technology development; and the Wilson College Global Citizenship Initiative. The global citizenship initiative seeks to prepare all Wilson students to actively engage with people of other cultures and play leadership roles in their professions and communities in identifying and implementing sustainable solutions to the world’s problems.

Fundraising for the Leading with Confidence Campaign continues through 2011.

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Wilson is an independent college with a proud history of educating women since 1869 through rigorous study of the liberal arts and sciences. Today, Wilson’s mission also includes women and men enrolled in adult degree and graduate programs. Guided by its Honor Principle and distinguished by a commitment to transformative student growth, Wilson College prepares all of its graduates for fulfilling lives and professions, ethical leadership and humane stewardship of our communities and our world.

Wilson, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and located in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, offers bachelor’s degrees in 30 fields, teacher certification for college graduates, and a master’s degree in education. This year, Wilson enrolled nearly 800 students from 21 states and 13 foreign countries.